Solar Lamps in India – Green Bottom of the Pyramid,Price of Solar Lamps and Major Manufacturers

Solar Lamps or Solar Lanterns have seen astounding growth in India driven mainly by the lack of access to electricity and the high costs of Kerosene or gas lamps.Note Solar Lamps have been so successful in India mainly due to their economic utility rather than their Green Characteristics.Note 100,000 Indian villages do not yet have electricity which means that the productivity comes to a complete stop in the dark.Poor schoolchildren cannot study in the dark and people cannot work in the night either.Note Kerosene a dirty oil refined product is the main source of energy for millions of Indian citizens.Kerosene is a health hazard resulting in accidental fires and causing a lot of smoke which can lead to various respiratory diseases.Note Kerosene is subsidized by the Indian government and distributed through the Public Distribution System (PDS) which is a massively corrupt and inefficient system.The Kerosene is given in limited quantities and is not sufficient to Light the Darkness for a month or more.The advent of Solar LED Lamps has been a godsend solution to this problem.

Solar Lamps – How it Works

A Solar Lamp is a Light which has 3 main parts

a) A Small Solar Panel

b) A Battery to store the Solar Energy

c) A LED Light to convert the Solar to Light Energy

Solar lamps are charged during the daylight hours from the sun and discharge during nightime when they are turned on.The Solar Lamps may work for 5-10 hours a day depending on the LED Light Capacity,Size of the Battery etc.

Solar Lamps Government Subsidies

Solar Lamps were also promoted by the Indian government specifically MNRE which brought out various schemes such as distributing free solar lamps to girls,subsidies on solar lamps in the form of captial subsidies etc.However Government has not managed to consistently give incentives and did not put enough efforts.The government stood to gain a lot as it would have saved money from kerosene subsidies.

Solar Lamps Financing

Note Solar Lamps for poor customers in India needs financing as these customer earn around $2 a day which mean the cost of a Solar Lamp which can cost around $20 is too high for them.Some companies have tied up with banks to provide micro loans to customers in order to get their products financed.

Solar Lamp Manufacturers in India

Selco India SELCO Solar Pvt. Ltd, a social enterprise established in 1995.SELCO employs about 170 employees in Karnataka and Gujarat spread across 25 energy service centers. Selco sells most Solar Products alongwith Financing Packages as well.

D.light Design – D.Light Design was started with the socially responsible goal of bringing light affordably to millions of poor.Its flagship product is S250 which is a dual purpose solar light and mobile charger. Its b It provides 10 times more light than a kerosene lantern.

It also charges the most popular mobile phones on the market. It keeps personal mobile phones fully charged even when AC power is unavailable or inconvenient.

Tata BP Solar – This Tata Company has one of the biggest and oldest solar panel manufacturing operations in the country.Tata BP Solar also manufactures a wide variety of Solar Product which includes different types of Solar Sodium,Solar CFL and Solar LED Lamps .

Note the above are the major solar lamp manufacturers which have had a big impact though Tata BP Solar is more of a commercial solar panel seller.There are a number of small solar lamp manufacturers as well as resellers in India who buy from cheap Chinese vendors and sell it in India.